God love you Greg.....i'm "in" the first 4 minutes of this dear saints message, recounting of how a young man prayed "break me", and it brought back remembrance of my "baby" days of being in Messiah Jesus.
my first burden was "revival" (that is how I found fire on the altar dot com, which led to you and Sermonindex, June 2002, ).....and the first revival I read the recounting of was Wales 1904, and that choice vessel, a 26 year old coal miner named Evan Roberts, who would pray and call out thru abject weeping , "Bend me Lord, Bend me"....and "Bend the Church", almost doubled over in weeping....and as was my nightly call, I would spend evenings in secret prayer...and in my UNKNOWING the Godly ramifications, with my whole heart soul body mind, I would pray "Bend me Lord".......I knew what that Godly concept meant....but I did not know what followed.
The LORD ....soon, showed me, as He BROKE me...REALLY broke me...no joke, stripped me of everything, certainly not "fun", but a Godly imperative. Now again, The LORD is breaking me, not fun, BUT, as we have had the grievous occasion to witness certain recent "revivals" (emphasis the quote marks) with all the fleshly foolishness, I will not name names, but "gold dust", barking like dogs, or "drunk in the spirit", etc etc etc....where the onus is having a "whopping good time".
God have mercy on the helpless and harassed sheep of the Flock.
I have noticed, both from the past, and in my own little life....weeping and Godly grief are the initial Hallmarks of the Holy Spirit at work.
Since you blessed me with this message I will go back to in a moment, allow to bless you?....with a book I had bought many many years ago, "The Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings Which Followed"...originally written in 1910 about the revival in Pyongyang 1907, my copy was a 1977 reprint, which until last year was unattainable, rare...but Praise God!...some saints reprinted new copies, that are available at amazon for $2.95 (USD)there are 14 copies left, and I speak the truth in Christ, you (and the other saints at SI) will be blessed indeed by reading this heavenly testimony.
much love, my brother, in Jesus love, neil |